Hi Pete,
I'm thinking from what you are describing there is a problem with the grid size being small enough to over come the single pixel shifts. This happens in Lightwave when my grid system is too large. I haven't seen a way to adjust the grid in the mesh warp tool though and that could be the issue. When working in that kind of space I stick with the 3D programs because of it. Not sure if you can do that but that's how I do it.
Hth,
Dean